Time for CEOs to make the shift

Globally we are faced with unprecedented circumstances and the world is a significantly different place than it was a year ago. Because of this competitive and threatening environment, anxiety is pulsing through corporate executives around the globe. Unfortunately, many businesses have fallen and in the coming year many more will fail. The question is, "Will yours be one of them?" These global realities are requiring business leaders to revolutionise their perspectives as nearly everything has changed. You must feel pressured because business as you have known it has come to a halt. What does this mean for you? It is time for action. The CEO Shift is not about your company replacing its chief executive officer. Rather, it is what you must do for your company to succeed in our competitive and changing world. Simply stated, reality is mandating every business to make these five critical shifts: MARKET SHIFT The markets of the world have moved. They are no longer in the backyard of the West. Clearly, they have moved To the East. The "market shift" is not about outsourcing, offshoring, or insourcing to/from a foreign land. It is not a trade act. It is more than a plan to expand your existing client base. Over the past decade we have divided the world according to the developed world and the emerging markets, which can be described as a nation's social or business activity in the process of rapid growth and industrialisation. But in the future we will segment the world according to where the people are. The market shift can be summarised by the term "peopleisation" (the massive people markets). Never before in history have there been markets with the size and density of today's. Three realities distinguish "peopleisation" and they are having a remarkable influence on the future of business. As you understand them and lead your business to make the market shift, you will position your business for "post economic crisis" success. GROWTH SHIFT In the past, to find the biggest and/or largest of anything people looked to the West. Now companies and projects in the fast-growth markets in the East are growing at rates once unheard of. Every single day, the news reports about the massive growth there. Whether it is a report of good fortune, such as the rise in the number of millionaires in the emerging markets, the growth of the middle class in China, the largest shopping mall, tallest building, largest IPO or the unprecedented rates of corporate growth in India and the Middle East, the size of expansion and growth is massive. If you want to lead your business into the future, you are going to have to make the "growth shift". As CEO, you need to shift your understanding of what growth now means. Growth is no longer caused by your organisation or concentrated in a few Western markets. Instead, you must shift what causes your growth. SPEED SHIFT Beyond the magnitude of growth, emerging markets have experienced a "whip lashing" shift in the speed of business. They are setting new standards. Economic activity in the emerging markets has been growing at rates of around 40 per cent as compared with two to three per cent in the West and Japan. It's little wonder that your business needs to make a shift. If you travel to Beijing or Mumbai on a monthly basis, you will notice the obvious differences. In Dubai, on a weekly basis, you have to verify your route to work as new roads appear and old ones are closed. Business is now moving at a warp speed. TALENT SHIFT The acclaimed "Talent War" is over. And, talent won. There is no debate that the most important corporate resource over the next 20 years will be talent – finding them, keeping them, and getting the greatest performance from them. The talent reality is critical, it is much worse than previously anticipated as there are not enough workers to provide the world with the business that it needs. To understand this, all we have to do is look at the demographics. Here is the reality: only 48 per cent of the fast-growth and emerging market population is of working age. Yet they need to provide for all of the needs, business, products, and services for the 5,474,539,148 people living in those markets. Workforce availability is a key resource for business growth and speed. There is a decreasing pool of working age employees and an increasing demand for business. In the emerging markets, 29.82 per cent are under 15 whereas in the developed markets 25.67 per cent are more than 55. And 12.18 per cent of the emerging markets are more than 55 and 14.82 per cent of the developed markets are under 15. While the West is suffering from an ageing population, the emerging markets are wrestling with a "youth bulge". Only businesses that redefine their talent strategy and approach will make it. The legacies and histories that you once relied on are a prescription for failure. This is one of your most severe pains and two Panadol will not make it go away. CEOs need to make a "talent shift" if t